1. Field
Embodiments relate to a mobile System on Chip (SoC), a mobile terminal using the mobile SoC, and a method for refreshing a memory in the mobile SoC, and more particularly, to a mobile SoC capable of stably operating even at a temperature deviating from a general guaranteeing temperature, a mobile terminal using the mobile SoC, and a method for refreshing a memory in the mobile SoC.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a mobile terminal provides higher performance, heat emission of a volatile memory, such as a DRAM, in an SoC causes the entire mobile terminal to perform unstable operations. Particularly, since each cell of the volatile memory includes a capacitor having a small capacity, data loss caused by the heat emission results in errors in the data stored in the volatile memory. Consequently, the mobile terminal may perform an erroneous operation.
A volatile memory generally requires a refresh. To perform a self refresh in the volatile memory, a self refresh command is output from an SoC to the volatile memory, and the volatile memory automatically performs a refresh with a predetermined period until the volatile memory receives an operation stop command. A refresh cycle is determined based on a cycle of an internal counter of the volatile memory. Since determination of the refresh cycle depends on the internal counter of the volatile memory, an external device to control the refresh cycle.
Recently, a high frequency has been used to improve the performance of a mobile terminal. However, when the temperature of a mobile terminal increases to a temperature equal to or greater than the guaranteeing temperature by the heat emission of an SoC and a volatile memory using such a high frequency, it is difficult to guarantee a self refresh of the volatile memory. Therefore, a mobile SoC that allows a volatile memory and a mobile terminal to perform stable operations, and a mobile terminal using the mobile SoC are demanded.